Last year, I wrote an essay for a local magazine outlining my broad idea of what Perak can do to revive the languishing state of its economy, and fitting in to the overall development model of
I am dividing the essay into three parts, with the first part being on the development of Perak in the past, and how the fate of its economy was, and still is intimately related to events in the global economic landscape.
Charting the Future of Perak:
On why technology and heritage matter
By Elanor Tan
Exploring the relevant development model and economic potentials of the state
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For every story, there is a defining moment – a moment which sets in motion subsequent chain of events; a moment which characterises the essence of the story and charts the future direction of the plot. For the story of Perak, the moment is the Industrial Revolution which began in
And this is how,
As how the rise of Perak was shaped by global events, so was the end of this tin-induced progress. In the beginning of the 1980s, the global economy entered into a recession and the prices of most primary commodities began to drop. By the end of 1985, the price of tin collapsed, falling by almost 50% and the tin mining industry shrank rapidly. Continued depression of global demand eventually pushed the industry into economic irrelevance by the 1990s.
Unlike the
This is the story of Perak, and herein lies the clue to what is needed to unlock its economic potentials in the future – a truly integrated development model to create a new niche for the state.
Learn to look at the Bigger Picture
Global events shaped the economic development of Perak in the past, and it will do so in the future. We need to be aware of these events and capitalise on them. A prominent technocrat of the international policy-making arena once told me; the key of solving an issue is to look at it from the ground, zoom out at 3000-feet from above, seeing the surrounding issues, and then zoom out to further 30000-feet above to get a truly global picture, before going back to the ground. Economic decisions for Perak can no longer be made in isolation of the bigger picture, lest we risk being marginalised further.
First and foremost, it is important to realise that the world is fast changing. The heightened international financial integration in recent years, compounded by the continuous globalisation of trade and unprecedented sophistication of cross-border information flow, has inevitably resulted in an increasingly integrated world. While political ones remain, economic borders are fast vanishing. International economic forces now increasingly serve the interests of the consumers, not that of the governments; and wealth is created from the marketplace, not from natural resources. Like what Michael Corleone said in the Godfather, “It is not personal… it is strictly business” – movement of wealth is dictated by incentives and this realisation is important in finding an effective developmental strategy.
The best example is that of the emergence of the two ancient civilisations in Asia,
Secondly, we have to realise that the development of Perak is a part of the overall development of
… to be continued…
1 comment:
Politics is too serious a matter left to politicians.
Everything from the cradle to the grave involves politics.
But do our politicians care?
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